Parents of slain journalist slam ads featuring their son

Parents of slain American journalist James Foley have condemned political ads featuring their son moments before he was beheaded by ISIL terrorists on camera.

“I think it is deplorable and there should be an apology,” Foley’s father said in an interview Thursday with the New England Cable News.

“It makes me very sad that people would use the brutality of our son’s death for their own political purposes,” Foley’s mother said on NECN.

Secure America Now, a conservative nonprofit organization focusing on national security issues, has funded political web ads featuring a CNN broadcast in which Foley is kneeling in an orange jumpsuit right before he is executed by an ISIL militant in Syria.

James Foley was beheaded by the terrorist group in August.

The ads target “vulnerable Democrats” weeks before the congressional midterm elections, The Hill reports.

One of the ads takes aim at Democrat Sen. Jeanne Shaheen from New Hampshire, the in the Northeast’s most conservative state where Foley came from.

The ad says while ISIL terrorists threaten to attack America, “President Obama and Senator Shaheen have done nothing.” It urges voters to “call now and tell Senator Shaheen to stop ignoring our border crisis. Tell her to secure our border now.”

Similar ads target other vulnerable Democrats, including Sens. Mary Landrieu (La.), Mark Udall (Colo.) and Mark Pryor (Ark.), whose races could determine the outcome of the battle for control of the US Senate.

Sen. Shaheen issued a statement Wednesday condemning the ad in her state. “This is a disgraceful ad that dishonors the memory of a respected journalist and New Hampshire native.”

“It hurts all who loved and knew Jim, and the people behind this ad owe the Foley family and apology,” she added.

The Foleys are demanding the ads be pulled from the state.